Obama signals green energy future for US

23 April 2009

Speaking at a wind tower production facility in Iowa, US President Barack Obama laid out his vision for a new clean energy economy, independence from foreign oil, combating pollution and finally addressing the climate change problem that, according to him, has been neglected for decades in Washington.

He said, ‘Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc across the landscape, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects. We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors, or we can confront what countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity: The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.’

President Obama pointed to the recent Recovery Act, and the $15bn dedicated each year in his budget for the development of clean energy sources. He said, ‘Through the Department of Interior, we are establishing a program to authorise – for the very first time – the leasing of federal waters for projects to generate electricity from wind as well as from ocean currents and other renewable sources.’

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: climate change, emissions, Obama, wind

This story was published on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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